Patricia Glaser, the Hollywood litigator who represented Olbermann during his exit from MSNBC and his subsequent hiring by Current, tells THR that conversations between the Olbermann camp and Current have begun over his role with the network. "Keith's lawyers and Current's lawyers are communicating," Glaser says.

Meanwhile, executives at Current TV said that relations - especially those with Current CEO Joel Hyatt - were at a breaking point after deteriorating over the past several months.

"I hope Keith is part of our future, but it's up to Keith," an executive with Current who declined to be identified told TheWrap. "Keith set us in the right direction and we're on that path now … and as I've learned over the years, everybody is replaceable."

Emphasis mine. Those are some pretty hard to miss warning shots Current is firing in Olby's direction.

Mr. Olbermann, who was hired last year to be the top star of the upstart liberal news source, had been on the job scarcely three months when trouble started. He declined Current's requests to host special hours of election coverage, apparently out of frustration about technical difficulties that have plagued his 8 p.m. program, "Countdown."

The channel decided to produce election shows without him. Mr. Olbermann, however, said he did not know that, and on Tuesday, the day of the Iowa caucus, the cold war of sorts reached a flash point. He held a staff meeting even though "Countdown" had been pre-empted.

Perceiving it to be an act of defiance, David Bohrman, Current's president, wrote a memo to Mr. Olbermann's staff telling them that the anchor had long ago given up the opportunity to anchor on election nights. "We assumed," he wrote, that "Keith had communicated to you."

Olbermann, meanwhile, has in his usual fashion taken to Twitter to rebut the stories. Or at least certain aspects of them.

Here's the thing. Current cannot claim they were not warned about Olbermann. He joined the network after a rather spectacular departure from MSNBC, which itself followed months of strife.

That said, even if his tenure at Current ends up lasting less than a year was it a bad decision? Much like MSNBC (but to a much smaller extent) Olby has put Current TV on the map. It may be a small map but at least people were made aware of its existence.